The present invention relates generally to the health field and more particularly to a device and method for predicting the onset of a migraine headache.
A headache may be one of several different varieties, each of which has its own unique pain characteristics which differ dramatically. The types of headache include tension, sinus, cluster, rebound and migraine. Migraine is a particularly painful headache that recurs from time to time. The pain is quite severe and often the person with migraine must stay in bed. Dietary, emotional and environmental factors may trigger an attack. On average, migraine sufferers experience an attack a month. Attacks last from four to seventy-two hours. Migraine sufferers sometimes get a warning signal before an attack. Some experience "aura," a disruption of brain function that occurs twenty to thirty minutes before the attack. This is characterized by visual disturbances like flashing lights and blurred vision. Other common symptoms include numbness or a tingling feeling around the lips or hands, hallucinations and loss of speech. Other migraine sufferers get a "prodrome," which occurs several hours or even a day before an attack. The symptoms may include yawning, fatigue, mood changes, food cravings, and sensitivity to light, sound, touch, or odors. Of interest is that the incidence of migraine appears to be on the rise. Because of the severity and incidence of migraine, prescription medicines have been invented to provide relief. One is sumatriptan succinate sold under the trademark IMITREX by Glaxo Wellcome Inc. and covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,816,470 and 5,037,845. A leaflet included with IMITREX instructs the migraine sufferer to take a tablet as soon as the symptoms of migraine appear. It is desirable to be able predict the onset of migraine before the head pain actually occurs and thereby permit the prophylactic administration of medicine.
The Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) is a set of standardized batteries of cognitive tests, modified by neuropsychologists in the U.S. Armed Forces for precise measurement of cognitive processing efficiency of military personnel. The tests assess sustained concentration and attention, mental flexibility, spatial processing, cognitive processing efficiency, mood, arousal/fatigue level, and short-term, long-term and working memory. The ANAM is now in the public domain. The most recent version is ANAM V3.11 a/96 which includes the following battery of tests:
1. Subject Demographics Form PA1 2. Stanford Sleepiness or Sleep/Fatigue Scale PA1 3. Mood Scale 2 PA1 4. Simple and Two-Choice Reaction Time PA1 5. Sternberg Memory Search Tasks PA1 6. Running Memory Continuous Performance Task PA1 7. Mathematical Processing Task PA1 8. Digit Set Comparison Task PA1 9. Logical Reasoning-Symbolic PA1 10. Tower of Hanoi (Tower Puzzle) PA1 11. Stroop Color/Word Interference PA1 12. Code Substitution (Letter/Symbol Comparison) PA1 13. Code Substitution (Immediate and Delayed Recall) PA1 14. Spatial Processing Task (Simultaneous) PA1 15. Matching to Sample PA1 16. Tapping (Left and Right Index Finger) PA1 17. Modified Orientation and Amnesia Test
It would be desirable to be able to use a subset of these tests to predict the onset of migraine.
The present invention is directed to meeting one or more of the above-stated desirable objectives.